Author Archives

Zack Frazier

Like many here on Hack Library School, I’ve been super busy with finals and the stress of graduating (see my two previous posts from earlier this year). Now that I’ve passed through the crucible of my last term, I’ve found myself in another tricky spot: the job hunt. I’m fortunate […]

I was reading Fast Company today, and it strikes me that one particular feature is missing from the bulk of library blogs; profiles of effective librarians. Sure we have lots of good product reviews to help with efficiency and lots of us write about our work flows, but not many […]

I know it seems really whiney, but it seems that these days I just don’t have any time. I feel constantly overwhelmed and no matter how much I do, I have a hard time keeping all my balls in the air. I know that I’m not alone in feeling this. […]

I had a little bit of a freak out a few weeks ago. It was the (obligatory?) “Holy crap, I’m Graduating!” freak out. Library school is a great time, but it has a goal, (hopefully) a job when you graduate. Despite all the work I’ve put in up to this point, […]

Our student group at USC, LISSA, has a rather unique fundraiser that happens around this time every year; The Mildly Attractive Men of Library Science. What is the Mildly Attractive Men of Library Science? The Mildly Attractive Men of Library Science is calendar that we make and sell annually to […]

It seems almost every year we in the library science field torture ourselves about the glut of graduates emerging from our programs and the shortage of jobs that exist within the profession. One thing I continually hear from people is that library schools should make admissions harder. The argument is […]

In addition to writing for Hack Library School as a contributing editor, the other big extracurricular activity on my plate is helping plan InfoCamp SC. InfoCamp SC is University of South Carolina’s port of InfoCamp, a two day unconference started in Seattle. I got involved in the InfoCamp project because […]

Below is a timeline that roughly follows my own experience in library school and what I have noticed other successful library students doing. Most of the activities are simple non-time intensive ways […]

I’ve written on my own blog about my feelings as a Borders employee and the company’s collapse. In this post I intend to dissect why Borders failed, and what it means for books, bookstores, and libraries. There are a lot of factors that led to Big Red Books’ down fall, […]

Hi Hack Library Schoolers, We’ve gotten contacted by a few people who have questions about applying to library schools. We can’t really answer those questions for you, everyone’s application process will be different. What we can do is tell you how we approached our applications. In addition to reading this […]

*Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions and are not representative of the student body, the University of South Carolina, or the School of Information and Library Science. I started in Fall 2010 as a full-time, out-of-state student. All criticism is meant to be constructive. When I tell people I am […]

In my Introduction to Library Science class, we were told that a primary goal of the class was to start the process of professionalization. Wikipedia describes professionalization as, “Professionalization is the social process by which any trade or occupation transforms itself into a true “profession of the highest integrity and […]

I had the good fortune of attending the 2011 InfoCamp Berkeley. People there were talking about and coming up with crazy new ways to discuss, think about, and present information. However, I also saw some examples of reinventing the wheel. There were topics where information science seemed to be struggling […]